I stayed out by the river for awhile, remembering the other day when James and I came down here for my birthday. Thinking about him made me feel a little bit better even if I knew I couldn’t get what I want with him right now, and that I had to wait until the trail for everything to go back to the way it was. I promise myself that this time I will make sure James doesn’t go back to jail and I don’t think he will at all.
I headed back home once it started to get dark. I didn’t want Aunt Zoe or my brother to worry about me even more if I haven’t yet returned. As soon as I walk through the door, my aunt pulls me into a hug. I apologise to her for running out like I did, and she understood why I did it.
For the next few days everything just seemed to go fast. I went back home with Daniel and Clara. I didn’t really want to go, knowing the consequences I had to face once I get home. I haven’t heard anything that was happening to James or his dad. All I know is they were back in LA as well, waiting for the trail.
I was grounded for the month for disappearing and not telling anyone where I went. I spent most of my days until the trail in my room, listening to music to make myself feel better and to keep my mind off everything. It wasn’t easy doing it, especially when everyone was moving forward with their lives and I felt like I was still in the past, trying to solve things until I could move forward. Sometimes I felt left out in my family and that they still didn’t quite understood what I was going through, even though they promised to listen to me and not give me so much of a hard time. At the moment none of them really wanted to think about the trail. All they really cared about was Clara and Daniel’s engagement. I know they still didn’t like James, even if Daniel knows he is innocent, but they act like he still is. I couldn’t imagine what my parents will say when they find out that I have been seeing James behind their backs.
The day before the trail I went down to the police station, asking if I could see James. They weren’t sure if it was a good idea for me to see him, but I beg them to allow me. I wanted to spend my last moment with him just in case they do sentence him to jail again.
James and I sat in an interview room with an officer standing the corner of the room, watching us. I really wish he would give us privacy, but I knew in a police station there was no such thing as privacy. The police have their eyes and ears everywhere, hearing everything you say and do, anything to catch you in the act of something.
“How is everything going for you?” James asks me.
I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t think my family really cares so much about how I feel even though they say they do. My dad has grounded for disappearing and never telling my parents where I went. What about you?”
“I keep replaying everything in my head and wondering about the trail. My lawyer came in earlier today, discussing to me about tomorrow.”
“Have you seen your dad?”
James looks down at the table, twitching his thumbs in front of him. He looks up at me. “Yeah, I have. He keeps giving me these death stares like he is going to kill me right here. He hasn’t talked to me, but I know he is going to do everything he can to make sure I go back to jail. I’m terrified that if I go back then I will be sentenced for life.” He starts to cry a little. “I don’t want to go back.”
I want to get up and pull him into a hug, but I wasn’t sure if the officer would allow me to. The officer gives a little more to talk before he tells us our time is over.
Before heading home, I go to our favourite park. A few children are playing on the playground. I crawled into the tunnel and sit there. Some of the children peek in there and when they saw me, they went off and disappear. I pull out my iPod switch it on. Kelly Clarkson’s song The Sun Will Rise begins to play. I sit there, closing my eyes as I listen to it.
When I get home I lock myself in my room, not really wanting to talk to anyone about tomorrow. I pretended I was going to bed early so none of my family will bother me. Sleeping was out of the question for me. I kept tossing and turning all night, wondering how the trail will be today.
In the morning I almost didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want today to be repeated from two years ago. From what my lawyer has told me, he said that a decision was going to be made today and they weren’t going to drag the trail on and on like it did last time. I was glad because to tell you the truth I couldn’t really want to be in the court room again. I didn’t want to see the people’s faces of sympathy they had for me of faces of disgusted when they see James. I just wanted all of this to end.
I dreaded heading to the court as Dad pulls the car out at the front. The front of the court house is swamp with the media and other people, protesting how James should be locked up for good. I knew every single question the media was going to ask me, and I didn’t feel like answering them all. Dad turns to Daniel and tells me to get me inside and make sure no one will surround me with annoying questions.
Daniel did just that. As soon as the crowd spots me, they immediately hurry over to me. My brother grabs me and he quickly pulls me through the crowd and telling people to back away. Reports try to shove their microphones into my face, blurting out questions, but Daniel pushes them away. We make it quickly inside.
“I don’t understand why those people really need to ask me all of these questions about James,” I tell my brother.
“Don’t worry about them. They don’t need to know anything if you don’t want them to, but in the end they will end up knowing the result.”
We wait for our parents before walking down the corridor to the court room we were going in. I see my lawyer, Chandler Chase, standing outside with his briefcase, chatting on the phone. I wave to him and he nods his head. Once he gets off the phone, he chats to me a little, asking how I was and what I’m planning to say inside. He told me I will be called to the witness stand, telling everything once again about the night Mr Waters raped me, and then repeating everything once again that happened on the night in Wichita. It was painful to think about it all. Hopefully this is the last time I ever have to tell the story.
Once it was ten o’clock, we enter the courtroom. I sit down at a table on the left side of the room with Chandler while my family sat behind me. Two security guards walks in with both James and his dad, dressed in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs behind their backs, sitting them down at the table on the other side. Mr Waters looks my way, throwing me a death stare that made me feel uncomfortable.
We rise as the Judge walks in. We sit back down once he was seated. He calls on Mr Waters first. Chandler gets up and starts asking him questions.
“Can you tell us what you were doing on November twelfth, 2011?” Chandler asks.
“Well, I just came home from work and I hear screaming coming from my son’s room. I walk in and I see him on top of Ellie Peyton.”
Liar.
“Is that so, Mr Waters?”
“Yes, it is, Sir.”
“Right, well what were you doing on the night of July twentieth, 2013?”
“I was sitting at home here in Los Angeles, waiting for any information the police might have any whereabouts on my son.”
“You weren’t in Wichita, Kanas, by any chance?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Chandler turns to the Judge. “Your Honour, I would like play to you the 911 call that was made on July twentieth.”
The Judge allows the tape to be played. The room is silence as some rests an audio tape of the recording that was taken when I called for help. I wanted to block my ears, hearing the distress in my voice.
Chandler proceeds. “So is that your voice on there, Richard?”
He nods. “Yes, it is. I was trying to save Ellie. James went after her.”
“And how did you know exactly where James Waters and Ellie Peyton were?”
Mr Waters is quiet for a moment, thinking of another lie. “Ellie called me.”
I was disgusted by his lie. I had to try and not say or do anything stupid, no matter how mad I was for him lying. I had to remember that Mr Waters was an excellent liar. If he managed to get out of this mess once before and I knew he was going to do exactly the same thing.
He glances over at me and gives me a sneaky smile.
I stood up my seat. “You’re such a liar, Mr Waters!”
“Miss Peyton, please sit down,” the Judge says. “You will get your turn soon.”
I did as I was told and sat down. I look over at James and he looks at me with a worry look. I can see the fear in his eyes of how he knew if we couldn’t prove what really happened, James was going to be sent to jail once again, and this time he won’t be allow to be release at all. He will probably be in there for life.
Chandler continues with the questions. “Why did Ellie called you?”
“She was telling me where she was and wanted me to come get her.”
“Why would she call you to come get her? She could have called the please.”
“Yes, well, she wanted me and I told her I will come get her.”
“What happened that night when that 911 call was made?”
Mr Waters’ lawyer, who was also James’, stood up. “Objection, your Honour.”
“Proceed please,” the Judge says.
Mr Waters continues, retelling the story of what happened, twisting it all around. I had to hold the tears back that were threatening to fall. I couldn’t handle the lies. I just couldn’t stand to sit here and watch him say things that aren’t even true.
I stood up and storm out of the court room. The Judge calls me back, ordering me to sit down, but I didn’t. I kept walking. I head down the corridor and walk into the bathroom. It was empty. The moment I walked in, I rest my back against the door and burst into tears. I couldn’t take any of this anymore. All I wanted was it all to end. I wanted Mr Waters to be sent to jail like he deserves, and I wanted James to be set free. But from all of the lies Mr Waters was saying, nothing was going to go my way. My only hope if the jury agrees with the recording. The evidence is on there. They have to believe it.
I was glad Mr Waters was in handcuffs and wasn’t allowed to wander the corridors without security. On the day of James’ final trail, he approached me in the corridor during a break, dragging me into the bathroom and threatening me if I was ever to tell the truth of what really happened.
A knock comes from the door. “Ellie, is everything okay?”
I quickly wipe my eyes when I hear my mother’s voice. I move away from the door and allowed her to come in.
“No, nothing is alright,” I tell her. “Mr Waters is lying. He is going to try and put James back in jail again. That’s where he wants him to be.”
Mom pulls me into a hug. “Everything is going to be alright, Ellie. I’m sure the jury will make the right decision.”
I was hoping my mother was right, but I didn’t feel any hope. I follow her back to the court room and then apologised for storming out like I did.
The questions continued for Mr Waters before it was James’ turn. James told everything correctly, even fixing up some of the lies that his father had told. My only hope was the jury will believe everything he says.
The Judge calls a fifteen minute break. Chandler takes me aside in the corridor to talk to me.
“How are you holding up, Ellie?” he asks.
“I just want all of this to be over.”
“I know you do and it will soon. Will you be alright going up on the witness stand? You won’t break down?”
I shake my head. “No. I think I will be alright going up there. Chandler, do you think we will win and that James won’t have to go to jail?”
“I can’t really promise you anything, Ellie. It’s up to the jury.”
Chandler leaves me alone to make a phone call. My family comes up to me to see how I was, hugging me and wishing me good luck on the stand. I don’t know why they were even bothering to wish me luck on the witness stand. Being in the stand has nothing to do with having luck. You either tell the truth or you tell lies, and leave the fate in the hands jury’s hands and hope they make the right decision.
The last time I was in the witness stand I broke down a few times. It was also the day where I had finally came out of my post-traumatic stress. It didn’t matter what I said because the truth was already damaged from Mr Waters’ lies. But this time I was determine to make sure the truth wasn’t damage.
The Judge calls me up to the stand. I held my right hand up and promised the security guard in front of me that I will tell the whole truth.
Mr Waters’ lawyer approaches me. “Miss Peyton, can you tell us what happened on November twelfth, 2011?”
“Objection,” Chandler says. “Ellie doesn’t need to retell you this.”
“No, proceed,” the judge days. “It’s important that she tells us her side of the story.”
I take a deep breath. I close my eyes for a second, thinking about the past. I didn’t want to remember anything, but I needed to in order to prove James is innocent.
“James and I were just in his room,” I explain. “We were just listening to some music and James suggested we slow dance. So we did. He was about to kiss me when his dad comes into the room. He wanted to know what we were doing, and then he grabs me, throwing me down onto the bed. James tries to stop him, but he kept holding James back and making him watch what he did to me.”
“The doctor who treated you after the incident said you stuffed from post-traumatic stress. What was exactly was going through your head? Why didn’t you come forward and tell the truth about what really happened.”
I had to restrain myself from trying to strangle the man from the question he asked me. “Well, what do you think was going through my head? I was raped. All I could see was flashbacks. I shut myself out of everything because that’s all I could see. Every time someone asked me to recall what happened, I blank out. I didn’t want to know anything. I didn’t want to speak to anyone. I didn’t speak until the day of James’ final trail, but by then it was too late.”
“And you’re just coming forward with this information now?”
I nod. “Yes, I am.”
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Why did you wait for two years?”
“I tried to tell people the truth once I began to be more open to it, but no one wanted to believe me. They kept saying I was protecting James from a serious crime, which I was because I know he didn’t do it.”
“Why should we believe you now? How do we know you’re still trying to protect James?”
“Because I know James is innocent. I was there. He was there. So was his dad. Mr Waters threatened us both from telling the truth.”
“Can you tell us what happened on July twentieth?”
I tell the court everything. When I was finished, I was asked to be seated. The Judge then called for another break while the jury came to a decision. I waited impatiently to know the truth.
When the break is over, the jury comes back into the room. A tall Canadian man with light brown hair and glasses stands up from his seat to read from a piece of paper in his hands. My stomach twists in knots.
“We find Richard Waters for the raping of Ellie Peyton guilty.”
Mr Waters stands up. “What? No! That’s a lie!”
The Judge tells him to sit back down.
The Canadian man continues. “We find James Waters for running away with the law not guilty. For the raping of Ellie Peyton…”
I held my breath as he took his time answering the last verdict.”
“Not guilty.”